Nulabour sinks our liberty

Never had it so bad?

There goes our liberty
The rightly respected Henry Porter has set out his thoughts on why in terms of civil liberties we've never had it so bad, see HERE. It was Harold Macmillan who used the phrase “you've never had it so good” in 1957. At that time the UK was still recovering from the effects of WW2. Many people had suffered in the depression of the pre-war years and by the mid-1950s were desperate for a better life. Now 50 years later it is formally recognised that the good years, fought for and worked towards by so many ordinary people, have been replaced with a sustained period of decline of liberty.

Porter is specific with his condemnation, Home Secretaries: Jack Straw, David Blunkett, Charles Clarke, and John Reid are blamed. Clarke is given special treatment by Porter due to an article the former wrote recently. In reply Porter says -

“Like Blunkett, Straw and Reid, Charles Clarke is an incorrigible statist with a background in far-left politics. He has never grasped the truth that good government can only exist where there is a balance between government power and individual freedom. For people like him the wisdom of the state is unquestionable: anyone who points to government inefficiencies or doubts the merit of its decisions becomes an enemy, not of the government, but of the state”.

Porter knows his subject well and gives defined examples with plenty of detail to reinforce his point. Put simply, the situation we are in is not due to some accident, misunderstanding or even incompetence, it is wholly due to malevolence on the part of these men. Porter also says in reply to Clarke -

“This is not a joke. After listing the investment in CCTV and the DNA database, the Human Rights Act, the Regulation of Investigative Powers Act (Ripa), the Freedom of Information Act and the Data Protection Act, he (Clarke) says this":

'Most of this legislation was opposed by the Conservatives and supported by the Liberal Democrats. Its overall effect has been to strengthen the judiciary at the expense of the legislature, to weaken the executive, to empower the media and to discredit the political process. Despite these unwelcome consequences, I continue to believe that the changes were right in principle and should not be reversed.'

The fury of Porter, like his position as the foremost reporter in the UK on this subject, is impressive. It is an inconvenient truth for some people, like recent Home Secretary Jacqui Smith and current incumbent Alan Johnson and others, to admit this state of affairs has come about. This is akin to pretending that the most memorable feature of the maiden voyage of the Titanic was a strong smell of fresh paint. It is pathetic, a criticism also levelled by Porter at Clarke!

The only fly in the ointment is that the motive power for much of this decline in our liberty is due to the EU. But then Porter does write in the Guardian and funny enough so did Clarke with the article that annoyed Porter so much! And the day the Guardian comes to its liberal senses with the EU and faces the facts, will be the day the Titanic once again floats on the surface of the Atlantic!